Let me tell you a story. I was in a bar recently, wondering what it would be like to have an arcade version of Guitar Hero, when I noticed a gentleman coughing next to me. He took a sip of water, and complained bitterly about the smoke that was floating heavily in the air. I nodded, not wanting to get involved. He told me he hoped that some day Kentucky would have a smoking ban in bars so he could enjoy himself without smelling bad when he walked out. I was sympathetic.

Then I asked him what he did for a living. He slid me a card. "I work for the tobacco lobby," he told me. My head, as they say, asploded.

I had a remarkably similar reaction to reading this article about why used game sales are a good thing on Soren Johnson's Game Design Journal. He makes many good points: GameStop is a part of this industry, and having specialty game retailers is a good thing, more people buying games means more people are playing games, and people who buy used games may buy new games in the future. Good man, these are things I like to hear from the industry; if you buy a new game you should be able to sell it, and if someone wants to put a game on eBay or sell it to GameStop they should have that power. You're preaching to the choir, and it's good to see someone in the industry stand up for consumers. Who is this Soren Johnson guy, anyway?

Yeah, he works for EA Maxis. He was a designer/programmer on Spore.

As we know, that game has mechanisms in place making it nearly impossible to sell to a friend or online. As for trading it in, yeah, good luck with that. It's not like GameStop even takes in PC games for trade-in value anymore, and if the previous owner used up the install limit you'll have to plead with EA to get you more. Admittedly, we had no issue with that when we called EA, but it does put a damper on the used sales of the title.

I realize that author wasn't the person in charge of putting the DRM into the game, but it's also somewhat galling for him to say that people in the industry should be more accepting of used games when his newest title employs such invasive DRM to make sure it can't be resold easily.

So thanks, my friend. You made a strong argument for used games, but at least your game won't be affected. I'm sure others in the industry appreciate you telling them that they're being too uptight about used games while there is no risk of a large secondary market for your newest product.

Don't tell us that we should be able to sell our games. We know. Tell your bosses.